The rookie scoring race this year saw the three Calder Trophy finalists all finish within a single point of each other. Gabriel Landeskog of the Colorado Avalanche and the Edmonton Oilers’ Ryan Nugent-Hopkins both recorded 52 points, while New Jersey Devil Adam Henrique scored 51. The only other player even close to those three was Philadelphia Flyers rookie Matt Read, with 47.

Yet another look shows that the gap between those four and a player like Carl Hagelin or Sean Couturier has been exaggerated by circumstance and opportunity.

(NHLNumbers will occasionally publish some of our authors' archived material. This article was originally posted on December 24, 2010)

A question that has come up a few times is whether big players tend to have an advantage when taking faceoffs. There is a certain logic to the idea that they do: after all, bigger, stronger players should be able to out-muscle their smaller counterparts in the faceoff circle.

There was a relationship that came up a few times during Washington’s post-season run, ended in (yet another) one-goal game last night against New York. When Alexander Ovechkin played more than 20:00 in a game, the Capitals were 1-and-5; when Ovechkin played less than 20:00 per game, the Capitals were 6-and-2.

Wanye and Kent have already given you peeks behind the curtain, but here is a more thorough overview of the new NHLNumbers - The Nation's blog dedicated to studying the NHL and the game of hockey from an objective perspective.